Ginny's Better Half, March 1962
Today is a momentous occasion here on GDB. You've all seen and enjoyed many photos of a charming young woman dubbed "Ginny" by somebody (was it Nanook? Or maybe Melissa?). Take a look HERE, HERE, and HERE, in case you forgot. Ginny, with poise to spare. What kind of man could possibly be good enough for her? Maybe a Steve McQueen type, or a Robert Mitchum doppelgänger. Well, not exactly. Here he is! He's learned to stand on the curb, so that's something. I'm sure he was a nice guy, and probably a lot of laughs. I hope he and Ginny had a long and happy life together.
Meanwhile, over at the Carnation Plaza Gardens, the Disneyland Band is performing. Vesey Walker is hatless, I hardly recognize him without the shako. The trumpeter to the right is giving it his all, no matter that the Plaza Gardens is sparsely populated.
23 comments:
Major-
I'm 'guilty' of naming "Ginny". As for "Mr." Ginny - I think he's the captain of his bowling league. Perhaps the 'life of the party', too. June 1st will now be a red letter day here on GDB.
Thanks, Major.
Mr. Ginny reminds me of an actor, but I can't think of his name or any movies he was in... you know who I mean. Doesn't he seem a little old for Ginny? Maybe not. I get the impression that Ginny kept herself looking younger than she really was.
Is that a wormhole opening up above Mr. Ginny's head? My latest theory is that those olives-on-toothpicks tripods are alien beings, and the olives are their eyes!!!
I wonder what the Disneyland Band's musical selections were in this concert? The usual Disney tunes? Big Band hits? Wagner's Ring Cycle? It seems sad that there aren't more people in the audience. I doubt that I would be there, either. Like Major, I would be off to get in line for the next attraction.
Nanook, yes siree. Let it be proclaimed throughout the blog: June 1st shall henceforth be Mr. Ginny day! At least, until next June 1st, when nobody will remember this momentous occasion.
Thanks for the big reveal, Major. I think we were all a bit curious about who Ginny's photographer was.
Maybe Ginny was visiting the park with her father that day? And I think she had given him a few tips on how to pose for a photo. He was a work in progress.
Will we be seeing any more pics in the future, of "Mr. Ginny" or "Father Ginny"? Or is there just this one?
JB, yeah....what is going on with the sky in that first pic?
@ JB-
"Mr." Ginny reminds me of Dan Lauria - who played the father, Jack Arnold, on [the original] The Wonder Years.
Mr. G is clearly Biff Tannen…here on another Back to the Future, Biff (Tom) still working away- good for him. We share the same Alma Mater. I like this view of Tomorrowland - it’s much more lush and less “dry” than other photos going the opposite direction. I don’t think Mr. G is too old for Ginny: people looked older back then. Tom was in his mid 20’s when he played Biff…just like all the actors in Grease were also 30 something’s playing teenagers. I am also playing a teenager in my real life- keeps you young. Vesey + team- no hats. Hats are never to be worn indoors on guys. Nope, never. My grandmother told me so. I still cringe in a fit of PTSD when I see people on TV wearing hats clearly in indoor situations. I suppose times have changed. Indoor hats to me are akin to airport floor sitting, but I’ve been down that road. Hats on ladies indoors are allowed. If you look closely, the ketchup bottle on the table is Disneyland branded. I like ketchup to be dispensed in this way, the little packets although very convenient always seem to be a tad messy- but I think it’s my giant mitts trying to get open the child proof packet. Packets on the ground at Disneyland were a teenage boy shenanigan. They would put the on the ground waiting for someone to step on them hoping it would squirt another guest. It’s a thing- I saw it many times. I think the more respectable ketchup dispensers are those at In and Out, Five Guys, or Culvers. I wonder if Ginny or Biff had ketchup that day…or Catsup?….only Kreskin knows. As a side note Kreskin auto corrects to Kremlin, and in the sentence it also makes some sense. Thanks Ginny, Biff and Major!
Wow! For some reason "Mr. Ginny" actually seems to go with her pretty well. But that name....huh...
I hereby proclaim that his name is....Jerry! (at least to me) He does kind of remind me of Dick Van Dyke's neighbor... Sort of...
Well, it looks like Bu got his keyboard warmed up before I did this morning. Biff Tannen at Disneyland with Ginny. I wish Doc Brown was my neighbor, we could all jump into his Delorean and ask Ginny "What do you see in this guy? Run away!" Then of course, we would listen to some cool trumpeter and help Vesey Walker find his hat.
((Heavy Sigh))
W
At long last, Mr. Ginny appears. I think he looks fine, I’m glad to meet him, and I’m joining Major in good wishes for their long happy life together, some of it spent remembering good times in the Park.
Major, are these pics from the same lot? Did Mr. Ginny take these Carnation Plaza pics too?
I bet there’s some collector out there wishing they had those wax paper soda cups. I remember scraping wax off of those with a fingernail and unrolling the rim.
JG
Yes, Mr. G really does have a “middle-aged Biff” look. He has a nice dimple! And some interesting laceless boots. Why does the person in the second photo to the right look like a man with a Prince Valiant hair cut and hat? Thanks for the big reveal, Major.
I'll keep Ginny in the 'Hollywood' category and Jerry as a professional photographer or some similar technical expert in the industry. Maybe he was the model for Biff. Stranger things have happened... KS
@ Bu-
I completely concur about 'condiment dispensing' - those squeeze containers are much better and fairly inexpensive. But, someone has to refill - and occasionally (let's hope) clean them. And then someone else will say the squeeze 'bottles' aren't as "sanitary" as individual packets. Plus the packets have instant 'branding'. Yada, yada.
Bu: funny comment regarding your grandmother and men’s hats. In the 80’s on one of my grandparents visits to San Diego from North Carolina, we were at a fairy nice restaurant for dinner and a male patron left a ball cap of sone kind on ….. my grandmother COULD NOT enjoy her meal!! She was so irritated that that man was wearing a hat indoors and in a restaurant!!!! To this day because of that I can’t but notice when people wear a hat indoors … especially in a restaurant.
My grandmother made this clarification that it was ok to wear a hat indoors if it was a birthday party hat or a costume party!!
Fairy nice = very nice
"Shako". I learned a new word today!
The guy's name is coming to me through the ether..... Yes..yes it's Ray.
The "no hats indoors" is more nuanced in my memory. Generally, hats off in a more private space, but hats can stay on in a more public indoor space. For example, you can keep your hat on in a a bank or an hotel lobby, but if you went into someone's office or room you'd take it off. A sit-down restaurant would be a hat-off place, but fast food or an ice-cream parlor would be a gray area to me.
Nanook, it was YOU! Ha ha. Your legacy lives on. Hey, I’d love to be in a bowling league, only I’m not that good at bowling.
JB, it’s hard to tell the ages of people, and I don’t really have a good sense of how old Ginny is herself. I don’t think she’s college age, but as I said, it’s hard to tell. The olive-on-toothpicks thingys are aliens? You have to stop sniffing glue! I’m guessing that the Disneyland band played an assortment of Disney classics and probably some well-known “band concert” music. John Philip Sousa and that sort of thing. Let’s confuse everyone we know by wishing them a “Happy Mr. Ginny Day”!
TokyoMagic!, this is the one and only photo we have of Mr. Ginny, sadly. He did most of the picture-taking. As for the sky… I mean, it’s just clouds man!
Nanook, yes I can see the resemblance.
Bu, YES! That’s who I was trying to think of. Tom Wilson, when he got a bit older. I used to take art classes at a nearby school that is now gone, but Tom Wilson would occasionally show up, I think he was friends with one of the teachers. I should have asked him what it was like to work on “Back to the Future”. Nobody has ever asked him that one before. By the way, Peter Falk also sometimes showed up, much to my amazement. It’s so funny to see any show with 25-year old high schoolers. Or like you said, 30+ year-old people in “Grease”. Oh yeah, I’ve never seen “Grease”. No interest. I’ve seen enough clips to get the general idea. I don’t know about wearing hats indoors, but I’ve heard that it’s bad luck to put a hat on a bed. Floor sitting in airports is bad, but just yesterday I watched a YouTube video of people leaving Disneyland late at night. A bunch of girls laid down in the middle of Main Street for a picture with the castle behind them. They DO know that horses walk those streets all day? And that horses do stuff?
Anonymous, gosh I don’t remember who Dick Van Dyke’s neighbor was, unless it was Morey Amsterdam? They were co-workers, but were they also neighbors?
Warren (nice to hear from you), I really do see Biff when I look at Mr. Ginny. Or “Jerry”. Or “George”. Or “Jeff” (only it’s spelled “Geoff”)! I hope Doc Brown has a Delorean station wagon, otherwise he can only take one passenger with him!
JG, I’m not sure which Carnation Plaza pics you mean… not the ones with Stan Kenton from a week or so ago? I don’t recall any Ginny pics with the Carnation Plaza, but I do forget stuff. All the time. I used to unroll the rims of waxed paper cups too, it drove my mom crazy.
Kathy!, I’m hoping the person with the “Prince Valiant” hairdo is a woman, though the hat is throwing me off. It that’s a man, the hair is pretty long for 1962!
KS, Maybe Jerry was a gaffer. Or a grip. Or a best boy. Do they still have “best boys”? What a weird name for a job position.
Nanook, little ketchup packets drive me crazy, I need to open about 30 of them (same with Taco Bell hot sauces), and by that time I’m weeping loudly and my food is cold.
Mike Cozart, I don’t have any hat stories, but I sure remember how my grandparents hated seeing men with long hair. I mean HATED.
Mike Cozart, ha ha!
Dennis, hooray!
Major, I meant photo 2 in today's post, shako-free Vesey Walker.
Was this pic today a Ginny and Jerry pic or one from another source?
JG
Whoa, topless pictures of Vesey Walker? Is this GDB After Dark?
Mr. Ginny, or Steve McBob, as I like to call him, looks like a really fun guy. You can see the twinkle in his eye! And if Ginny was the one taking these two pictures, she was just as skillful a shutterbug as he. She probably picked up a lot of information about f-stops and blue hours and stuff from the photographers on her modeling gigs.
Mr. Ginny has got style too; He’d need to hang out with her I suppose. Great tonality to his ensemble. Good shoes. Nice cardigan gives him a friendly look, a lot less stiff and more fun than those black suits behind him. And he can strike a pose. Rock on Mr. G.
Maybe this from June…plenty of gloom in those clouds and flat light.
#2 Nice chairs, those have changed over the years, these have a proper back. Gotta love the swirl motif in the seats, the music stands, the structure itself, which play well with the stripes all around, amidst the layers of perspective trellis-work. Talk about attention to details!
MS
Oh, this was Stu29573...
Van Dyke's neighbor was Jerry Helper! And I was Anonymous. Oops!
Major-
Yes - Jerry helper, played by actor Jerry Paris.
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